Eloquent, passionate, and energetic, Sikander Bizenjo is a World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Shaper. He also works for the only partner of the WEF from Pakistan at Davos: Engro Corp/Dawood Group. Sikander is also a Co-Chair of the Davos Lab Taskforce, and Co-Founder of the Balochistan Youth Action Committee (BYAC) (along with his friends, Banari Mengal and Khalid Ismail).

Sikander joined Davos as a part of the Global Shaper community. In his work with Engro, he builds and institutionalizes global relationships on behalf of the large private company. As the only partner representing Pakistan, Sikander and Engro play a key role in bringing executives and innovative ideas from Pakistan or driving engagement with Pakistan in this context.

Sikander took the incredible initiative to found BYAC during the pandemic or lockdown. The purpose was to support those in rural parts of Pakistan. Sikander, himself, hails from rural Balochistan, not an easy area to reach. With road closures, daily wages are impacted, as there’s no means to earn income. So, Sikander began with a focus on helping the population access to food items, and then, moved into providing access to medical supplies.

Most recently or currently, he is working on introducing reading rooms or mini-libraries in Balochistan’s villages that do not have internet. These are run by leading youth on a voluntary basis (without funding). Seventy-two rooms have been supported thus far. They deliver donated books to the mountainous areas, sorting them based on topics that would be of interest to the given groups there. In turn, BYAC offers youth a number of services and trainings, such as counseling and instruction on how to use LinkedIn, technology, and in CV-writing. They also get support with reference letters. And most of all, youth gain leadership skills. Balochistan does not have a significant culture around volunteering so it’s quite the transformation.

The team also runs awareness campaigns on climate change, breast cancer, and other overlooked yet crucial social and environmental topics. Often times, it’s the first time these communities are learning about these issues.

So, essentially, whether it be health, education, livelihoods, Sikander’s goal is to support and strengthen these communities of Balochistan while empowering youth changemakers. Overall, BYAC has mobilized over 200 youth, or Young Champions; and they are one of the first responders when it comes to any climate-induced catastrophe or other natural disaster like the recent earthquake in Quetta and floods in Makran.

Yet, amazingly, BYAC runs on little funding - mostly from friends & family, and informal, voluntary support. International funding hasn’t yet been pursued.

At large, historically, local people have not been involved in such programs and decision making on the ground. Sikander is trying to change that, empowering people and including them in solution design. And he has had phenomenal success in this movement building. The main motivator is helping your own people, he says.

There are two hundred or so active, committed Youth Champions. They meet monthly and discuss community needs to design various initiatives or projects.

His efforts have been internationally recognized: Bill Gates mentioned BYAC as one of the unsung heroes of the pandemic; Paolo Coehlo gave them a shoutout.

What the efforts could truly benefit from now is greater community internet access; so, Sikander spent time at Davos trying to get in touch with providers. Imagine if the reading rooms were digitized; the scale would be so much greater. And it is not just about the positive impact, but equalizing the playing field. During the pandemic, students who did not have digital access lost over two years of education, he says. Tablets and online curriculum / course providers would also be instrumental.

So, why & how did Sikander embark on this purposeful high-impact journey? He says it’s because he comes from these masses, and if he had not gotten an opportunity to move to Karachi, he wouldn’t be where he is. His work with the government in Islamabad is how he learnt about the Global Shaper Community. He then moved to Malaysia and while there also volunteered with refugees. These formative experiences instilled in him a desire to continuously strengthen local communities.

If he can use whatever network access and knowledge he has, especially about the grassroots, to advance the community, he would like to do so. Sikander cannot see it any other way.

Young people are completely looking at the world in a different way, as a result of COVID, questioning the values of institutions and businesses, says Sikander: “We need more young people across all decision making platforms and in all spaces; They are not leaders of tomorrow, but they must be viewed as leaders of today … here at Davos.”